428 PORGHUM. 



done in the way of careful investigation for the purpose of determin- 

 ing their practical value for the production of sugar. Indeed, many 

 of the statements made in reference to maize seem almost prophetic. 

 It appears reasonably certain that had the matter been carefully fol- 

 lowed up by a series of experiments, the enormous drain upon the 

 country, which has required all the gold and silver product to supply, 

 could not only have been prevented, but we might have been, a half 

 century ago, the great sugar producing country of the globe. 



In a letter from Abigail Adams to her husband, John Adams, Sep- 

 tember 24th, 1777, she says: 



An instance may be seen in the progress which is made in irriiidin<r corn- 

 stalks and boiling the liquor into molasses. Scarcely a town or parish within 

 fortj' miles of us but what has several mills at work; and had the experiment 

 been made a month sooner, many thousand barrels would have been made. 

 No less than 80 have been made in the small town of Manchester. It answers 

 very well to distill, and may be boiled down to sugar. There are two mills fit- 

 ting up in this parish. They have three rollers — one with cogs and two smooth. 

 The stalks are stripped of the leaves and tops, so that it is no robbery upon the 

 cattle, and juice ground out. 'Tis said four barrels of juice will make one of 

 molasses, but in this people differ widely. Thej' have a method of refining it, 

 so that it looks as well as the best imported molasses. 



David Lee Childs, on the culture of the beet and manufacture of 

 beet sugar, says : 



Other plants usually grown in our soil are capable of furnishing sugar, and 

 some of them maj^ be found worth cultivating for that and accessory products. 



We have tried Indian cornstalks and the pumpkin, and have obtained from 

 them good sugar and molasses. 



Perhaps these crops may alternate advantageously with the beet. If the 

 manufa(;ture of sugar from the stalks of Indian corn can be reconciled, as we 

 believe it may, with the maturitj'^ or near maturity of the ears, this source of 

 saccharine may superfede the beet root. 



Under date of March 13th, 1880, R. S. Hiuman, of Hartford, Con- 

 necticut, Avrites me as follows: 



I have found that, in 1717, one of mj^ ancestors procured a patent from the 

 general court of the colony of Connecticut to make molasses from cornstalks, 

 on condition that he should make it as good and as cheap as it could be got 

 iroui the West Indies. 



At a meeting of the French Academy, M. Biot stated that he had 

 found 12 per cent of sugar in juice from cornstalks in one experiment, 

 and 13 per cent in another. 



In the Farmers' Encyclopedia is the following : 



The juice of maize contains as much, if not a larger proportion of sugar, 

 than that of sugar-cane. 



